Green Schoolyards
Los Angeles County is home to 1.3 million students, attending 1,914 schools across 80 school districts. Collectively, school districts represent one of the largest landowners in LA County and offer minimal green space or shade canopy. These asphalt-covered schoolyards pose extreme health risks that exacerbate climate and environmental justice inequities in LA’s most vulnerable climate communities. With school-aged children being some of the most negatively affected by extreme heat events and existing environmental burdens, school greening represents a critical solution to redesign our school communities to help alleviate these environmental and public health impacts.
Council for Watershed Health (CWH) contributes over 27 years of experience partnering with school districts and public agencies to develop and implement school greening projects in LA County and across the State of California. The timeline below provides a brief background of our project experience. Click through to learn more and see how school greening has played a role in our work across our focus areas.
Planting the Seeds for
School Greening
A Community Engagement Guide
Informed by our community engagement process for Cal Fire Green Schoolyard Planning Grant, this guide offers step-by-step examples and strategies for partnering with schools to create dynamic, inclusive, and educational community engagement processes to inform a green schoolyard project's design and broader community climate resilience.
Since 2011...
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ReDesignLA
As part of our ReDesignLA Program, a capacity-building and technical assistance program for community-based organizations (CBOs) and Tribal entities, CWH is working with six CBO partners on 10 community-led school greening projects across LA County.
In ReDesignLA’s “Grow With the Flows” Cohort, mentors Day One and Promesa Boyle Heights guided mentees River in Action (RIA) and Nature for All as they identified the communities' needs and green infrastructure project opportunities. During phase two, all four CBO partners pursued school greening projects in their communities of focus and successfully submitted competitive project proposals to Cal Fire’s Green Schoolyards grant program. In partnership with CWH, Nature for All and River in Action were awarded Cal Fire funding to support the planning and design stages for four of their school greening projects. This includes RIA’s projects at Miramonte Elementary School and Edison Middle School, and Nature for All’s school greening projects at Rosa Parks Learning Center and Primary Academy for Success. Promesa Boyle Heights and Day One also submitted separate Cal Fire proposals that were awarded funding for four schools. In partnership with CWH, Nature for All, RIA, and Willowbrook Inclusion Network (WIN) were awarded Cal Fire funding to support the planning and design stages for five LAUSD school greening projects.
In ReDesignLA’s “Aqua Giants” Cohort, CWH provides technical support to Willowbrook Inclusion Network (WIN) and Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement (APIFM) on their respective school greening projects. Through CWH's Cal Fire grant, WIN's project at 118th St. Elementary School reached 50% design. In partnership with CWH, Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement (APIFM) is leading a school greening project at Fremont Elementary School in the Alhambra Unified School District.
Given ReDesignLA’s increased focus on school greening, CWH is committed to building each CBO and Tribal partner’s capacity and technical knowledge to become school greening leaders that advance community-led school greening projects across the region.
Image Credit: Nature for All
Image Credit: Herrera Environmental Consultants
Designing Health Schoolyards for LAUSD
Council for Watershed Health, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), applied for and was awarded a $1.6 million planning grant as part of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (Cal Fire) Green Schoolyards Program. Eight LAUSD schools were selected by Cal Fire to receive Green Schoolyard planning services: 118th Street, Holmes Avenue, Harmony, and Miramonte Elementary Schools, Edison Middle School, Primary Academy for Success, Diego Rivera Learning Complex, and Rosa Parks Learning Center.
Map Credit: Lower LA River Revitalization Plan
Lower LA River School Greening Technical Assistance
With funding from the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC), Council for Watershed Health (CWH) is leading a Lower LA River School Greening Technical Assistance Bench, which will develop three community-led and nature-based school greening projects. The Project will create a network of school greening CBO leaders and technical service providers across the Lower LA River. Deliverables include 100% green schoolyard design for three schools and technical assistance to support acquisition of implementation funds.